Ian Doyle was particularly impressed by one Liverpool under-21s player in Tuesday night’s 3-0 win over Morecambe in the EFL Trophy.
It was the first time the Reds’ youngsters had won a match in the competition at the 13th time of trying, with first-half goals from Mateusz Musialowski, Calum Scanlon and Bobby Clark ensuring victory.
The latter of those earned the highest score in the Liverpool Echo journalist’s post-match player ratings, with Doyle writing of the 18-year-old: “Didn’t take long to settle and began to dictate play with some excellent through balls, and completed a fine team move for the third. A real talent.”
Albeit with the help of a deflection, Clark’s finish for the third goal last night summed up a very impressive all-round display which saw him complete 100% of his dribbles, pick out eight accurate long passes and win five duels and three tackles in addition to finding the net.
He was also on target for Liverpool’s first team in pre-season when scoring in the 4-0 win over Leicester in Singapore, which surely would’ve raised him even higher in Jurgen Klopp’s estimation, with the Reds boss having already dubbed him ‘unbelievable’ in 2022 (SPORTbible).
The 18-year-old has already had some exposure to competitive action at senior level, coming on towards the end of the 9-0 thrashing of Bournemouth last season and playing three-quarters of the Carabao Cup third round success over Derby just before the World Cup break (Transfermarkt).
He’d already made a telling impact at under-21 level this term prior to last night, scoring one goal and setting up two more as Barry Lewtas’ side beat Everton 4-0 in August (Transfermarkt), and he may yet get game-time in the Europa League if things go to plan for us in the group stage.
Having seen the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Stefan Bajcetic break through in recent years, and with the prodigious Ben Doak now armed with a new contract, it seems that Liverpool’s brilliantly productive academy is churning out yet another ‘real talent’ in Clark.